Refutation of All Heresies 4.28.9

Authorship disputed: The work names no author. Book 1 was long printed among Origen's works as the Philosophumena; after books 4–10 were found in a manuscript from Mount Athos (published 1851), it was assigned to Hippolytus, the usual view today, though some scholars ascribe it to another Roman writer of the same circle. Books 2 and 3 are lost, and book 4 lacks its beginning.

Summary: The tube may be a bird's windpipe or joined bronze pipes.

Greek text · Duncker–Schneidewin, 92

Τὸ δὲ τοῖς ὠσὶ παρατεθὲν ὄργανον ἐστὶ φυσικὸν ὄργανον, τῶν μακροτραχήλων γεράνων ἢ πελαργῶν ἢ κύκνων ἀρτηρία· ὧν εἰ μηδέτερον παρῇ, ἐστὶ καὶ ἕτερα τέχνης ὄργανα· αὐλίσκοι γάρ τινες χάλκεοι τὸν ἀριθμὸν δέκα εἰς ἀλλήλους χωροῦντες, εἰς στενὸν ἀπολήγοντες εὐάρμοστοι γίνονται, διʼ ὧν πρὸς τὸ οὗς ὅσα θέλει φθέγγεται. Καὶ ταῦτα ὁ παῖς κατακούων ἐμφόβως ὡς ὑπὸ δαιμόνων λαλούμενα κελευσθεὶς ἀποφθέγγεται.

English · Claude translation

The instrument put to the ears is a natural one, the windpipe of long-necked cranes or storks or swans; if none of these is at hand, there are other instruments of art: some little bronze pipes, ten in number, fitting into one another and ending in a narrow end, become well joined, through which he utters to the ear whatever he wishes. And the boy, hearing these things fearfully as spoken by demons, declares them when bidden.

About this passage

Source

Duncker–Schneidewin, 92 · Ludwig Duncker and F. G. Schneidewin, eds., S. Hippolyti episcopi et martyris Refutationis omnium haeresium librorum decem quae supersunt (Göttingen: Dieterich, 1859); section divisions from Paul Wendland, ed., Hippolytus Werke 3: Refutatio omnium haeresium, GCS 26 (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1916) · Greek text: L. Duncker and F. G. Schneidewin, Refutationis omnium haeresium (Göttingen, 1859), digitized by the Perseus Digital Library; section divisions from P. Wendland (GCS 26, 1916), digitized by the First Thousand Years of Greek project (Open Greek and Latin); both CC BY-SA 4.0

Text

As printed in Duncker–Schneidewin. Manuscript variants and the editor's apparatus are not reproduced; no textual problem is noted in this passage.

Translation

Claude translation (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 · Translated by Claude from the Greek text of Duncker–Schneidewin; made independently of existing English translations.

Compare

Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 5 (1886) (an older public-domain English translation, whole volume at CCEL; checked against ours only after ours was made) · Its chapter numbers differ from the standard (Wendland) numbering used here.

Cite this passage

Hippolytus, Haer. 4.28.9 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/4/28/9/).

The SBL abbreviation for this work has not been checked yet.

Plain text

Hippolytus, Haer. 4.28.9 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/4/28/9/).